Luxury Motors Downers Grove, Bently Downers Grove, SAAB Downers Grove Murphy's Law Ripoff Downers Grove Illinois

I mean really obvious stuff like not knowing the book value of your old car you want to trade. That's inexcusable. Every dealer will take every advantage they can. They are in business to buy low and sell high. It's "don't ask, don't tell" about defects.

You should know that having done real estate deals. Would you buy a house without an independent inspection, or knowing what similar houses typically sell for?

And you keep going back. You like cars and they like to sell them to you.

I'm still waiting for the overly drawn out dramatic conclusion but at this point as soon as it became apparent you might not get the money to pay for the car, you should've just taken it back and asked politely, yet insistently, for them to undo the deal.

you went to so much trouble for a Mercedes? If you consider the Mercedes in question to "be expensive", why would you even bother?

Look up Mercedes' reliability up in the April 2007 Consumer Reports, and you will see that Mercedes cars have *almost all* solid black marks on all component groups, and an overall average of solid black.
Solid black = "much worse than average". Have fun!

The 2007 new car I recently bought has *all solid red" marks for all component groups.
Solid red = "much better than average".

I have not and will not buy an extended warranty for this 2007 new car, either. There is simply no reason to do so. And I really do prefer a car that does not have to go back to the dealer repeatedly. I am not that hungry to make new friends!

I just have to change the oil and rotate the Michelin Energy V-rated touring tires every 5000 miles. That is it.

Soooo.... why did you ever bother to get involved with such a hassle?

.As Murphy's Law continued to kick in, the trap was springing shut, and the noose was starting to tighten around my neck.

Remember: around 2 weeks after taking the car home I learned the transaction I was anticipating would be delayed. I notified Tony Preston and was told not to worry about it.

It is important to understand that if I was told or even thought it was a permanent arrange I never in a million years would have signed anything or taken the Mercedes off the lot. Even though at that time I had a very high confidence level in my deal closing, but there were still 2 things that would have prevented me from entering into any permanent arrangements, namely;

1. The ONLY way I would take title to such an expensive vehicle is in trust, for that to happen the trustee would need to sign all the papers. I was told that could be done when the deal closed and the balance was available.
2. I know there are only 2 truths about commercial real estate deals, which are:

1. The deal's not done until it's done. And,
2. Sometimes you are never farther away from a deal that you are when you are the closing table.


With my transaction being delayed, which is irritating, but normal, and being told not to worry about it, I didn't feel the noose tightening, and didn't realize I just got the kiss, before you get screwed.

Over my 3 years of nigtmares dealing with Luxury Motors I have seen some patterns forming. I had been giving the the benefit of the doubt. Now in researching, which I should have done BEFORE I bought my first car from them, here is some of what I have found:

From a link to an auto forum I discovered what appears to be a copied news item:

February 28, 2005
By Kate Ryan

Joe Abbas, president of Luxury Motors Inc., which has five area dealerships, says his company addresses every complaint it gets.

The Illinois attorney general's office is investigating one of Chicago's largest high-end auto dealers.

Luxury Motors Inc., with a total of five dealerships in Downers Grove, Chicago and Orland Park, sells used luxury cars as well as new Bentleys and Mitsubishis to well-heeled customers all around the country. According to a spokeswoman for Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the office has received about 50 consumer complaints against Luxury Motors since 2000, a period in which the dealership says it sold roughly 20,000 cars.

The number and type of complaints triggered a probe by the attorney general's consumer protection division, the spokeswoman says. She declines to say when the probe began.

The attorney general's office says most of the complaints allege that Luxury Motors failed to deliver a car on which a consumer paid a deposit $5,000 in the case of one Florida customer who bought a plane ticket to Chicago before finding out the car he wanted had been sold. The attorney general's office would not provide the name of the customer or a copy of his complaint.

Luxury Motors says consumers who pay a deposit are securing the price of a car, not necessarily the car on the dealer's lot at the time of the deposit. This policy is stated on the dealer's deposit agreement. In the case of the Florida customer, the attorney general's office says he was not aware of the deposit policy.

"That's not true," says Dave Rafus, vice-president of Luxury Motors' Bentley dealership in Downers Grove, who says he knows the customer in question.

Mr. Rafus points to the clause on Luxury Motors' standard deposit agreement. "Ninety-nine percent of people understand (the policy), but there is always the 1% who doesn't," Mr. Rafus says.

Joe Abbas, Luxury Motors' president, says some of the complaints about deposits stem from consumers who are unable to arrange financing for a car and are angered when the car is sold. "If a guy makes me wait three or four weeks and I'm paying interest on a car, that's not fair. We can't have one guy take it off the market," says Mr. Abbas. "We give that (deposit) money back."

DEALER A GIANT HERE

Luxury Motors is a giant in Chicago, selling 7,000 cars valued at $225 million last year. A Bentley spokeswoman says Luxury is "one of the largest" Bentley dealers in the U.S., and that the dealer is in good standing with the automaker. According to a Bentley survey, Luxury's consumer satisfaction score was 95 out of 100 last year, compared with a regional average of 94.2.

Allegations by consumers and in numerous lawsuits against Luxury Motors seem to center on Luxury's used-car business. Those complaints include failure to deliver a title promptly, failure to disclose a vehicle's history and selling cars with nullified warranties.

A customer from Green Bay, Wis., bought a 2000 Mercedes E320 from Luxury for $21,069 in cash on Oct. 27, according to a bill of sale provided by the customer, who declined to be identified and has not sued Luxury Motors. Mr. Abbas says the customer didn't receive the title until Jan. 21. A dealer has 20 days after a sale to submit title paperwork to the state for processing, according to Jim Kazimour, commander of the secretary of state police in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties.

"We expanded our offices and moved to a bigger one. We went from six people to 22 people in our office and we were just overwhelmed," says Mr. Abbas. "We had the title on Nov. 11, and we lost it in the move."

Mr. Rafus says the dealership has hired new workers to address the problems. "I just added another person who's just a librarian for titles. That's all they do is track titles," he says.

The Illinois attorney general's office says it has received about 50 consumer complaints against Luxury Motors Inc. since 2000. Photo: Brett Kramer

SUITS PENDING

Chicago law firm Krohn & Moss Ltd. is pursuing eight cases against Luxury, all in DuPage County Circuit Court. "I would say that's a lot," says firm partner Adam Krohn. "I can't think of another dealer we have eight with."

One of Mr. Krohn's clients alleges Luxury failed to pay off the loan on his trade-in car, damaging the client's credit rating. Another claims he bought a defective car that Luxury had already repurchased from another customer under lemon laws. Another client alleges he bought a car he thought was under warranty but, after a $3,100 repair bill, discovered was no longer covered. All of the cases are pending. Luxury denies any wrongdoing in connection with the Krohn & Moss lawsuits.

"There are some people no matter what you do you can't make them happy," Mr. Abbas says. "Worst case, we tell the customer we will take the car back. There is not one complaint that hasn't been answered yet."

The Better Business Bureau has collected 47 complaints on Luxury in the last 36 months, 16 of which are unresolved, according to a business bureau spokesman. The business bureau says the remaining 31 complaints have been resolved, which in most cases happens through mediation. Mr. Abbas says he has tried to make good on all complaints.

The Illinois secretary of state police, charged with inspecting businesses for compliance with licensing requirements, has not had any complaints about Luxury Motors, nor is the dealership on the police's "hot list" of problem dealers. "If there was something glaring, they would be on our hot list," according to Mr. Kazimour, the secretary of state police commander.

The attorney general's office took 16 actions against car dealers in Illinois in 2004, according to the spokeswoman.

2005 by Crain Communications Inc.


In looking at the reports here at ripoffreport.com, those at the better Business Bureau, those that come up on the simplest of web searches, reading the above Crains article, and looking back at my own experiences the pattern I am starting to see is as follows:

1. A significant number of the used cars they sell have latent defects. It is possible some of those defects were not known, but it is probable that some or many were and vehicles are sold in spite of the defects.

2. Money and profits appear to be far more important to them than customer satisfaction. This may be partially because at their size and volume their advertising and marketing budget must be huge, and ultimately it's the customer that pays for everything in the end.

3. Stall tactics and half hearted efforts appear to be the standard manner in dealing with customer complaints. It appears the only complaints that get addressed is when the Better Business Bureau or Attorney General are invloved.

If you take the time to research the BBB complaint history along with others you will see a pattern for yourself. This is something I should have done before I started dealing with them.